Mustafa Mahmudov () was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i political leader who was instrumental in the nation's independence movement in the early 1900s. He served as a

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the second Russian

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

in 1907 and was Deputy Secretary of the

Azerbaijani National Council Azerbaijani National Council ( az, Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti Milli Şurası) was the first delegated legislative body of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) from 27 May 1918 to 17 June 1918 and again from 16 November 1918 to 3 December 1 ...

at its initiation in 1918. Mahmudov also was a member of Azerbaijan's Commission on Agriculture. He represented the

Musavat The Müsavat Party ( az, Müsavat Partiyası, from ar, مساواة ''musāwāt'', ) is the oldest existing political party in Azerbaijan. Its history can be divided into three periods: Early Musavat, Musavat-in-exile and New Musavat. Early Musa ...

political party.

Early life and education

He was born on 31 January 1878, in

Kürdəmir Kurdamir ( az, Kürdəmir) is a city and the capital of the Kurdamir District of Azerbaijan. It is located in Aran Economic Region. Geography The district shares borders with Agsu, Goychay, Ujar, Imishli, Sabirabad, Hajigabul and Zardab r ...

village of

Baku Governorate The Baku Governorate, known before 1859 as the Shemakha Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its center in the booming metropolis and Caspian Sea port of Baku. Area (1897): 34,400 sq ...

into a peasant family. He received primary education in

and Göyçay, finally enrolling at prestigious

Transcaucasian Teachers Seminary The Transcaucasian Teachers Seminary (russian: Закавказская учительская семинария) in Gori (present-day Georgia) was a 4-year specialized secondary school in the Russian Empire in 1876–1917 aimed at professional t ...

, graduating from it in 1899. $Deputats II Duma muslim fraction$

Career

He started his career as a teacher, first working as a school instructor in Vəndam, then moving on to

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

city, working at several schools. Losing his elder brother in 1903, he was forced to look after his children too. He switched to politics in 1907 when he was elected to Second Duma of Russian Empire representing the

from the CDP. An activist for abolition of

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...

s in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, he accused Minister of Education, Piotr von Kauffman of neglecting empire's Muslim citizens' education, treating them like a

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

. He briefly returned to pedagogy in 1910 before switching to

and getting elected to Sejm of

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; (), (). 22 April – 28 May 1918) was a short-lived state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as pa ...

on 9 February 1918. He was Deputy Secretary of the

prior to dissolution of fragile Transcaucasian DFR. He later became member of succeeding

Azerbaijani Parliament The National Assembly ( az, Milli Məclis), also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms ...

from 1918 till the end of republic in 1920. He continued teaching career through 1929 and 1934 until his death. He was executed on 20 December 1937 during

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmudov, Mustafa 1878 births 1937 deaths People from Kurdamir District People from Baku Governorate Musavat politicians Members of the 2nd State Duma of the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Azerbaijan Democratic Republic politicians Great Purge victims from Azerbaijan